This invention relates generally to the display of financial information using graphic symbols. More specifically, the invention relates to the use of firm or corporate logos instead of textual abbreviations to identify securities information in a ticker-type format or in the display of other trading information.
Financial trading information displays are typically spartan. For example, tickers report trades only by an alphabetic abbreviation of the security traded followed by information about the trade, such as its price. Technology has only improved the medium, not the message. The original ticker tape reported trades by remotely printing out trade information on a thin strip of paper. Later technologies displayed that same information in rows of lights or on television screens. Throughout these changes, however, the format of the information has remained the same.
Unfortunately, most people find these displays difficult to interpret. Even experienced stock analysts can remember the abbreviations for only a few securities, and the abbreviations, which are only three or four letters, sometimes reflect historic anomalies rather than an attempt to identify the security clearly.
Besides their obscurity, conventional ticker displays also have limited use. They contain minimal financial information and use the same display formats. The displays do not provide contextual information about the market or about a particular issue or security.
One goal of this invention is to improve the display of financial information by identifying securities using their familiar corporate logos rather than textual abbreviations.
Another goal of this invention is to display contextual financial information, such as historical information or information specific to a security or market.
Yet another goal of this invention is to display information about trades between market makers in a format that is easy to comprehend.
Still another goal of this invention is to provide such information along with real-time or stored video and audio information.
An additional goal of this invention is to provide such information either in a standard schedule or in response to external events, such as dramatic changes in a stock price or user inputs.